- CLUTCH Summary: The New York Knicks and Los Angeles Clippers once nearly made a trade that would have sent shock waves through the entire NBA, as well as the souls of Chris Paul and Blake Griffin.
- The player involved in this “what if” trade scenario was Carmelo Anthony, who is now on the outside of the NBA, looking in.
- Every detail you need to know about this once rumored, polarizing trade.
The Los Angeles Clippers' hasty turnaround has been one of the most impressive recent developments in the NBA. Doc Rivers' team was left for dead midway through last season, when it traded longtime franchise player Blake Griffin to the Detroit Pistons, signaling the official beginning of a rebuilding project that began the previous summer, when Chris Paul was dealt to the Houston Rockets.
But instead of moving other winning players and committing full-stop to the future, the Clippers have since struck the impossibly delicate balance of prioritizing the present while setting themselves up to re-emerge as a contender this summer should a superstar decide he wants to be the face of Los Angeles' best team. Not even dealing Tobias Harris, their best player, to the Philadelphia 76ers at the trade deadline last month changed the Clippers' outlook for the season's remainder. Not only is Los Angeles still going to make the playoffs despite trading Harris, but President Lawrence Frank and GM Michael Winger have potentially created two max slots and netted two extra future first-round picks in the process.
There was a time not so long ago, however, that the Clippers were still firmly in win-now mode. But during the 2016-17 season, then President and coach Rivers was rumored to have held off on a potential blockbuster trade that would have brought Carmelo Anthony to Los Angeles. In addition to that, it was also rumored that the decision not to trade for one Paul's best friends in Anthony ultimately contributed to his departure from the organization the following summer.
ESPN anchor Michael Eaves, who spent years hosting the Clippers' in-studio pre and post-game show, recalled the rumored details of the rumored trade proposal and its fallout on his Facebook page in the wake of Paul being moved to the Rockets.
But what really solidified Paul's dissatisfaction with Doc was a proposed trade involving Carmelo Anthony last season. New York offered Carmelo and Sasha Vujacic to the Clippers in exchange for Jamal Crawford, Paul Pierce and Austin Rivers, a deal to which Rivers ultimately said no. That event led Paul to feel that keeping his son on the roster was more important to Doc than improving the team. So, ultimately, Paul lost both trust and faith in Doc. As one league executive put it, “Chris despises Doc.”
It seems obvious now that Rivers would balk at the New York Knicks' offer. Anthony, after all, has proven himself mostly unplayable over the last two seasons, first in a more debilitating manner with the Oklahoma City Thunder and earlier this season in a brief stint with Houston before team and player amicably parted ways after just 10 games.
Aside from Eaves, however, there has been no other report of the Clippers turning down a deal for Anthony. In fact, during Rivers' exit interviews for that season, he denied the notion that this was even under consideration.
“No, because most of the trade rumors that I read were untrue, I can tell you that” Rivers told ClutchPoints about anything he would've done differently at the trade deadline. “That doesn't mean we didn't have a talk, but when I start reading the actual names of some of the trades, I mean some of them, I said, ‘Boy those are good trades! Hope the Clippers do that!' I was actually thinking that and I can say some of the key ones that I read about were so far from the truth, it was laughable. Having said that, those trades… some of those would've been really good. If you can call those teams for me.”
Doc Rivers said most of the trade rumors involving the Clippers around the deadline were untrue. pic.twitter.com/4mFsh184mN
— Tomer Azarly (@TomerAzarly) May 4, 2017
Back in 2016-17, though, Anthony was still an All-Star, averaging 22.4 points and 5.9 rebounds per game for the Knicks before most – including Paul, evidently – understood just how far removed the future Hall-of-Famer was from his prime. Adding a then-solid Anthony to a core of Paul, Griffin, DeAndre Jordan, and J.J. Redick is a possibility that would have excited Clippers fans and most league followers in general. Remember, some believed that his addition to the Thunder last season made them the biggest threat to the Golden State Warriors' supremacy.
Fortunately for the Clippers, Rivers knew better than to buy into any of those talks, not just because Anthony would have been a horrible fit in the team's longstanding void at small forward, but also due to his albatross of a contract – one Los Angeles might still be paying out if the team had ultimately agreed to the trade. For the sake of everyone involved, but especially the reborn, rebuilt, and ever-evolving Clippers, we should all be glad Rivers didn't give in to the temptations of star power.
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